In today's world, the user’s journey across the internet is now becoming complicated with many ups and downs. Many people hop from one device that is slow or not working to another in a second to access a website.
In order to provide the most satisfying user experience, brands and business owners have to make sure that their website looks equally good on every type of screen no matter the shapes and sizes. This also maintains the integrity of your website content while adapting to different devices users are using to view your website. That’s why it is important to always have a website with responsive web design.
It's no news that a large percentage of online traffic comes from mobile, making every business want a mobile version of their website. But many people often question if it is just a buzzword or if there is an atom of truth to its popularity. Well, one thing is for sure, failing to make your website responsive could be the very thing that prevents your website from having a lot of traffic.
In the blog, Unify Wizards will discuss responsive web design and why it is more crucial than ever to pay serious attention to responsive web design. We will also explore the benefits of responsive design and other important aspects.
What is Responsive Web Design?
Responsive design is a big deal in web design and might be difficult to understand if you are not a designer. You might also be unsure if your business’s website needs a responsive design, especially if you do not understand the concept. Unify Wizards is here to explain everything to you!
When we talk about responsive web design, it is the process of making a single website adjust to any type of screen it is viewed on. It makes your website layouts change to match the screen size, making it look incredible on mobile phones, tablets, and desktops.
This way, when using a smartphone or other small-screen device, the user doesn’t have to scroll horizontally to see the content of the website or zoom the page.
Why is Responsive Web Design Extremely Important
Imagine you are strolling through a website on your laptop, and everything is working and looking perfectly fine. Then, you switch to your mobile phone to visit the same website, and to your greatest surprise, nothing is functioning well.
The text looks very out of place, you are unable to scroll down the pages. You are confused and want to know what happened. Well, the answer is simple, the website you visited does not have a responsive design. This has already shown us the importance of responsive web design. Below we will talk about other key benefits of responsive design.
Better User Experience
When you have a better user experience, it keeps people coming and staying longer on your website. If someone visits your website on a mobile device, and it takes forever to load, it will discourage them and make you look unprofessional. It is important to note that no one wants to do business with businesses or brands with an unprofessional website.
This shows you need to create a great viewing experience across all devices to make your website easy to navigate and for visitors to enjoy their stay. This customer experience improves visibility, boosts your reputation and convinces other people to give your company a chance.
Higher SEO Rankings
According to statistics, 90% of people leave a website when it is constantly non-responsive website. But stay and explore more web pages when the website is perfectly optimized for their device.
This right here is an indication that a responsive web design will increase the amount of time a user spends on your website. As a result of this, Google made responsive web design part of the factors that make your website rank higher on the search result pages.
Therefore, making your website mobile-friendly helps with your website's search engine optimization. It makes your website will be able to rank higher on Google’s search page. Also, the closer your website is to the top in search engine results, the better the chance that potential customers will find your website and decide to check it.
Low Maintenance
For many years, brands and businesses had to create different website versions for mobile phones, desktop computers and other devices. In this era, responsive web design has changed all that as we are now using just one website version.
This website version is able to change and customize its layout to meet every device that accesses it. With this approach, we now experience fewer website complexities, and they are also less expenses to manage.
Faster Loading Time
Did you know that Google research has shown that more than 50% of the people who use the internet always leave a website if it takes over three seconds to load? The use of a responsive web design essentially minimizes the amount of data and code that needs to be loaded because it only loads the necessary resources as users scroll through your website. This also reduces the need to redirect users to a device-friendly version while ensuring your website is lightning-quick.
Advanced Analytics
The great thing about a responsive web design is that it allows you to accumulate data from different types of devices. With responsible web design, you can collect information from for the next different screen sizes and orientations to platforms. This helps website developers understand user behaviour extensively and make data-driven decisions to help them elevate user experiences.
Future Proofing
Mobile devices are getting smaller than ever over the years, while others are discovering screen resolutions previously not used. Not to mention, there are also trends like notched screens and other unique mobile designs. Incorporating a responsive web design into your website helps it adjust to any device. No matter the new technologies emerge in the next 10 to 20 years, your website will still look great.
More Viral Appeal
Do you want your newly developed website to go viral on social media? With the right design elements and social media share buttons, a responsive web design will do that for you. This, in turn, will increase your social media audience, bringing more traffic to your website. This will also make your search engine rankings bump up further.
Is Responsive Design Overrated?
As much as responsive web design is great in this era, it also has its advantages and disadvantages. Let's take a look at some cons of responsive design:
- Every website does not look great on every device.
- When you want to provide different things to different users according to the device they use, responsive websites make this approach very difficult to achieve.
- When using responsive websites, it is possible to run into problems with resized advertisements or banner advertisements.
- It is often difficult for people to create a responsive website that is unique and accurate to their branding on their own.
Although responsive web design has its disadvantages, the overwhelming majority of its statistics reinforce the idea that responsive web design is still the best approach. For example, more than 50% of mobile users say that they will leave a website immediately if the website does not load faster or what they are looking for.
Despite the drawbacks, responsive web design is what many internet users prefer, because it makes the mobile browsing process much easier.
Easy to Manage
Many businesses, especially the smaller ones, do not always have a lot of time to update the way their website functions and responsive design allows you to make the changes quickly and easily. With just one responsive website design, all other elements of your marketing strategy will be much easier to manage.
You will never have to worry about linking the mobile or desktop version of your website on a social media update. Or wonder if all your redirect links will get the right visitors to the right site. Responsiveness takes the stress of managing your business website. away by handling it for you.
Best Practices for Responsive Design
Creating a website that looks and functions well across many devices is an important aspect of modern web design. With that in mind, let's talk about some of the best practices for responsive design that can help you achieve a seamless user experience.
- You need to shift from pixels and inches towards grids.
- Make use media queries to adjust the layout based on screen size.
- Optimize images in order to have faster loading times.
- Make use of a mobile-first strategy to ensure your website is optimized for mobile devices.
- Make use of responsive typography to ensure that text is readable across all devices.
- You must test your website on different devices and screen sizes.
- Make use of a responsive framework to speed up the development process.
- Make use of scalable vector graphics instead of raster images.
- Make use of a flexible grid system that can adapt to different screen sizes.
Summary
Responsive web design is no longer an option but a must in your standard website and workflow. In fact, you should prioritize a mobile-first or progressive enhancement design approach. Responsive design is also an important part of any modern website strategy, and it should be part of your website if you want to grow in the industry.
Getting your website to work seamlessly could be a hectic task for business owners. Therefore, they have to work with website developers, and this is where Unify Wizards comes in. We help brands and business owners build responsive web design. Our team of professionals can also help you create strategies to tap into the digital landscape. At Unify Wizards, your digital presence is our responsibility.